Kerlyn Roberta

Kerlyn Roberta T. G. is 20 years old. She is single and lives with her parents in El cantón de Chillanes in the Bolívar Province.

Kerlyn is a member of the communal bank “El Placer de Ser Amigos”, which is located 20 minutes from the San José del Tambo parish. There are 15 members, the majority of which work farming cocoa or have their own small businesses

Kerlyn is a farmer. She sows cocoa and corn. She buys her products every 15 days in Mata de Cacao. She is applying for the loan to invest in supplies and fertilizer to care for the cocoa. With the help of the loan she will be able to grow her own cocoa crops. Her dream is to make it as an agricultural worker. She also hopes to finish her university studies.

Additional Information

About Cooperativa San Jose

This loan is administered by Cooperativa San Jose, a 45,000-member credit union located high in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador’s poorest province, Bolivar. They offer a unique loan called “Ventanillas Rurales” [Window to the Countryside], which uses a group guarantee but is an individual loan with a savings component, mostly to rural borrowers. Due to low savings rates and a history of macroeconomic instability, many traditional loans in Ecuador demand interest rates that are prohibitively high for some borrowers. There is also a high incidence of extortionist black-market lending in Ecuador. CSJ helps mitigate these problems by providing a less onerous and more appropriate option. Join CSJ’s Lending Team!